All Roads Lead to Austen (37 page)

I have so many people to thank for my Austen year—most of all, each and every reader from the groups in Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile (Fernando, forgive me for revealing your Elinor secret!), Paraguay, and Argentina. Writers tend to say modest things like “I couldn't have done it without x, y, or z,” and in this case, it's completely true. I'd like to thank Betsy and her husband and Martín and Dorrie for being such great hosts. Various colleagues helped along the way, including Katie Golsan, Luis Figueroa, Gene Bigler, and David Schmidt. As for the real Larry from Pittsburgh, I loved our Austen conversations, and thanks also to the adventurous students from Chile!

All of my wonderful Jane Austen students from the University of the Pacific have been an inspiration as well, especially those whose projects I mentioned here—Jamie Cunningham, Caleb Draper, Katelyn McGehee, Megan Olhasso, and Alyssa Soboleski.

Friends and family have been a huge help with elements of the project and with the manuscript, including Dolly Blair, Laurie Brady, Martín Camps, Cynthia Dobbs, David Dobbs, Anne Gossage, Susan Harman, James Lewis, Hannah Myers, Cindy Ostberg, Traci Roberts-Camps, Shawn Smith, Pat Thomas, and the fabulous travelin' Cheryl Wanko. Jaque Lyman went above and beyond to help—thanks
so
much. (I can't wait to return the favor with your next novel). Folks from the Writers Unlimited group in San Andreas, California, supported by the Calaveras County Arts Council, gave me good direction as I was finishing the work and designing the website, especially Rachel-Mikel ArceJaeger and Monika Rose.

I want to thank Caroline Cox not only for braving the earliest, shaggiest forms of the chapters, but also for introducing me to Lisa Adams, my wonderful, supportive, and very patient agent. Thanks, too, to Shana Drehs, my editor, as well as Deirdre Burgess, for helping an uptight Elinor try to get in touch with her inner Marianne.

As for Rob Hume—I owe you so much. I know this isn't the kind of book you trained me to write, but I hope you're not too horrified. And as for my mom—you were there, every step of the way. I hope your church friends don't give you too much grief for some of the stuff I admitted to doing here…

I'm very sorry to say that, along with Luis, two other friends I met on the road weren't there when I reached the end of it. Ani from the Guatemala group lost a battle with cancer and Nadine, who'd opened the doors of JASBA to me, also passed away. They are sorely missed.

Whatever weaknesses this book has, I'm sure some friend, colleague, or editor tried to talk me out of them; I take credit for any and all problems. As for my husband, who transcribed two of the reading groups for me
and
taught me to speak Spanish with a funny accent—
¡qué suerte, mi amor, que al fin nos encontramos!

Amy Elizabeth Smith is from western Pennsylvania. She has a degree in music from West Virginia University, a PhD in English from Penn State, and teaches writing and literature at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. A lifetime member of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America), she's been publishing scholarly articles for years, but this is her first venture into travel writing. She's always plotting more trips. Anyone who would like to see some Chilean cow graffiti from Smith's travels can visit
www.allroadsleadtoausten.com
.